Katawa Shoujo 1.0

Katawa Shoujo is an eroge nakige-style visual novel game developed by Four Leaf Studios. It was first released in January 4, 2012. It is a story of a young man and six other main female characters with different disabilities. The story is narrated through the main character’s perspective and using a first-person point of view. The visual novel model the game uses is sprite-based with an ADV-style text box that runs on Ren’Py engine.

The main characters in the story are Hisao Nakai, Emi Ibarazaki, Lilly Satou, Shizune Hakamichi, Rin Tezuka, Hanako Ikezawa and Shiina Mikado. Most part of the story takes place at the Yamaku High School, a fictional school for disabled kids. Hisao Nakai, the main character, is just a normal boy when his life suddenly changed after finding out that he has a congenital heart defect. After being hospitalized for a long time, Hisao Nakai was forced to transfer to a new school. Despite having troubles, he is able to meet new friends and even the love of his life. The game has five main paths, which corresponds to the other 5 female characters. Each of the paths follows the storyline relating to one of the female characters.

Katawa Shoujo’s gameplay is choice-based. The player will read through the text and will sometimes make decision that can impact the dialogue or events in the story.  Depending on the choices the player makes, Hisao Nakai can end up with one of the girls, each of which may end badly, neutrally or well.